“Protectionism and Non-Resource Economic Growth: Evidence from Azerbaijan”

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“Protectionism and non-resource economic growth: Evidence from Azerbaijan” AUTHORS İlgar Seyfullayev https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3597-8565 İlgar Seyfullayev (2020). Protectionism and non-resource economic growth: ARTICLE INFO Evidence from Azerbaijan. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 18(4), 121-129. doi:10.21511/ppm.18(4).2020.11 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(4).2020.11 RELEASED ON Monday, 23 November 2020 RECEIVED ON Wednesday, 26 August 2020 ACCEPTED ON Friday, 06 November 2020 LICENSE This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License JOURNAL "Problems and Perspectives in Management" ISSN PRINT 1727-7051 ISSN ONLINE 1810-5467 PUBLISHER LLC “Consulting Publishing Company “Business Perspectives” FOUNDER LLC “Consulting Publishing Company “Business Perspectives” NUMBER OF REFERENCES NUMBER OF FIGURES NUMBER OF TABLES 42 2 3 © The author(s) 2021. This publication is an open access article. businessperspectives.org Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 18, Issue 4, 2020 Ilgar Seyfullayev (Azerbaijan) Protectionism and BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES non-resource economic LLC “СPС “Business Perspectives” Hryhorii Skovoroda lane, 10, growth: Evidence Sumy, 40022, Ukraine www.businessperspectives.org from Azerbaijan Abstract In the modern world, many developing countries take protective measures to develop domestic industries and diversify their economies to ensure economic sustainability. This issue is a priority, especially in those countries where economic development is provided mainly through the export of natural resources. This article aims to assess the impact of protectionist measures on the development of non-resource sectors of the economy. The object of the study is the non-oil sector of the Azerbaijani economy, where oil revenues account for over 80% of the country’s total exports. The study cov- ers the 2005–2019 years. Granger Causality test in the VAR environment was used to identify and assess the causal relationship between protectionist measures and the Received on: 26th of August, 2020 non-oil sector development. It was revealed that such indicators as “customs revenues” Accepted on: 6th of November, 2020 and “exchange rate” do not increase non-oil GDP. The study results suggest that in- Published on: 23rd of November, 2020 creasing the effectiveness of protectionism (in terms of economic growth) requires more reasonable and consistent regulatory measures. Targeting priority sectors and © Ilgar Seyfullayev, 2020 establishing monitoring mechanisms on the results of protectionist measures is also a priority for assessing their feasibility. Keywords economic development, quality of economic regulation, Ilgar Seyfullayev, Ph.D., Associate trade policy, Azerbaijan Professor, International Magistrate and Doctorate Center, Economics and JEL Classification O24, F63 Management Department, Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC); Economics Department, Azerbaijan INTRODUCTION Technical University, Baku, Azerbaijan. Today, one of the surprising facts is that Hornik’s rules (Reinert, 2011, pp. 346-349), which appeared at the end of the 17th century, seem to be an attractive approach for developing national economies, especial- ly in developing countries. The issues of the effectiveness of protectionism from the point of view of the local production development are of particular relevance for countries rich in natural resources, in which market institutions are still in their primary stages of development. It is no secret that many developing countries often resort to temporary protective measures fo domestic production to ensure economic security, but not all of them manage to achieve the desired results. And here, questions arise before the theory: What tools for protecting the internal market are more ef- fective? What factors influence the effectiveness of protectionist meas- ures? What conditions are required to achieve the desired results? This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the This article is intended to highlight the effectiveness of protectionist in- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which permits struments. In this regard, the assessment of the impact of such protec- unrestricted re-use, distribution, and tive instruments as customs tariffs and the exchange rate on the devel- reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. opment of non-resource sectors of the economy was taken as the goal Conflict of interest statement: of the study. The economy of Azerbaijan with formative market insti- Author(s) reported no conflict of interest tutions and rich in natural resources is chosen as the object of research. http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(4).2020.11 121 Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 18, Issue 4, 2020 The development of market and state institutions of Azerbaijan has been going on for almost 30 years. A private sector has formed in the country, whose share in GDP reached 85% in 2019 (SSCRA, 2020b). At the same time, government agencies have acquired extensive experience in regulating the economy. The oil boom that began in 2004 had a very strong impact on the country’s economic development and led to a significant increase in its positive foreign trade balance. However, the oil boom has brought with it a strong dependence of the Azerbaijani economy on oil revenues. Despite numerous government support measures, the bulk of domestic demand for manu- facturing products is met by imports. The domestic industry, once supplying more than 30 countries of the world with mining equipment, metallurgy products, household appliances, textiles, and processed agricultural products, is now in crisis. The weakening of industrial potential led to a radical change in the structure of the economy. The number of employees in the manufacturing industry in 2019 de- creased by 37% compared to 1990. Today, the bulk of the country’s labor force is employed in sectors with diminishing returns (in the agricultural sector (36%), in construction (7.4%), in trade and trans- port (18.6%), etc.) (SSCRA, 2020a). The above facts also show the practical significance of the results of the studies devoted to the analysis of the protectionism effects. 1. LITERATURE REVIEW O’Rourke and Taylor (2006), using the Rogowski model and the three-factor model, investigated There is an opinion in modern economic theories the effects of the level of democracy in 35 coun- that trade policy and quality of economic manage- tries (developed and developing) on trade open- ment have a huge impact on the economic devel- ness. The results showed that the influence of de- opment of a country. mocracy on the degree of trade openness could be multidirectional: if employees benefit from the Bown and Crowley (2014) using the negative bi- open economy, they will support free trade; if em- nomial distribution (based on explanatory vari- ployees take advantage of trade restrictions, they ables such as real GDP growth, changes in bilat- will support protectionism. If one considers the eral exchange rates, real GDP growth in partner benefits from the trade policy of the state change countries, changes in the unemployment rate, depending on the conjuncture of world markets, growth in bilateral imports (1995–2010)) investi- then one can argue that these benefits are su- gated changes in trade policies of 13 WTO mem- per-dynamic and relative. bers (Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Abboushi (2010), based on a literature review South Africa, Thailand, Turkey) during macroe- (published in 1967–2018) and the results of empir- conomic shocks. They found that import restric- ical studies, as well as based on a descriptive statis- tions in these countries are countercyclical and tical analysis of data from international organiza- that trade policies of these countries become more tions, concluded that protectionism serves the in- sensitive over time to sharp fluctuations in the real terest of certain groups of the population and does exchange rate. not support social welfare. Protective measures by governments that are in line with the interests Aggarwal and Evenett (2013) argue that after the of internal political groups lead to large losses for 2008 financial crisis, protectionist tendencies in- other segments of the population. creased in global trade, and regional trade agree- ments became more preferred. The growing role Mayda and Rodrik (2001), using the ordered log- of China (where government intervention in it model and the results of surveys conducted in trade is still significant) in international trade more than 20 countries, determined a close cor- has prompted many countries to revise their relation between the development of human cap- trade policies. ital and the support of free trade. They found that 122 http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(4).2020.11 Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 18, Issue 4, 2020 people working in non-tradable sectors support tries of the world. The study showed that the de- free trade, while employees in those sectors of the gree of a country’s economic development does not economy that engage in international trade based play a decisive role in applying trade restrictions. on comparative advantage prefer import restric- They suggest that as institutions improve, protec- tions. Relative economic status, moral values, and tionist tendencies diminish. Another interesting mentality also affect people’s attitudes toward an finding of
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